1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airbag which deploys, for example, along a side window inside a vehicle compartment, an airbag apparatus having the airbag, and a method for folding the airbag.
2. Description of the Related Art
With regard to an airbag apparatus having an airbag which is inflated and deployed by inflation gas, a curtain airbag apparatus has been known. The curtain airbag apparatus has an airbag which deploys planarly along side windows inside a vehicle compartment. In this kind of the airbag apparatus, an airbag is folded and assembled elongatedly and installed along an upper edge of the side windows inside the vehicle compartment. When the vehicle receives impact by side impact or rollover, an inflator infuses gas into the airbag. The gas is infused into a bag-shaped inflating portion via a tubular infusion portion of the airbag. Then, the airbag is inflated and deployed downwardly along the side windows.
In this kind of airbag, a separated fabric (flow control fabric) is attached from a gas infusion portion to an inflating portion to protect the gas infusion portion from heat of gas (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-146174 [page. 5, FIGS. 4 and 6]).
Furthermore, method for folding a curtain airbag is also known (see U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0110256 [FIGS. 1 and 2D]). In the above method, the airbag is rolled from the lower edge and the upper potion of the rolled potion is formed as a pair of flattened pleats. The pair of pleats wraps the rolled potion. With this folding pattern, the pair of flattened pleats is quickly inflated, and then the rolled portion is deployed.